McIlroy replaces caddie with best pal

AKRON» Rory McIlroy says he got rid of a caddie so that he could keep a friend.

McIlroy parted ways with J.P. Fitzgerald after the British Open, ending a nine-year partnership that McIlroy felt was heading in a bad direction.

“I still consider J.P. one of my best friends, one of my closest friends,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “But sometimes to preserve a personal relationship, you might have to sacrifice a professional one, and that was sort of the decision that I came to in the end.”

McIlroy will use Harry Diamond, the best man in his wedding, in the Bridgestone Invitational and next week in the PGA Championship, the final major of the year and the last chance for McIlroy to avoid three straight years without one.

“I was getting very hard on him on the golf course, and I didn’t want to treat ... anyone like that,” McIlroy said. “But sometimes this game drives you to that. But I felt like it was the right thing to do, and I don’t think there was any good time to do it.”

He figured the Bridgestone Invitational, a short field with no cut, would give him four rounds to get used to a different caddie. Diamond gives him a close friend, and someone who played for the Irish team as an amateur.

McIlroy praised Fitzgerald after the opening round of the British Open, where McIlroy was 5 over through six holes. He said Fitzgerald told him on the sixth tee, “You’re (expletive) Rory McIlroy,” which he said helped him get back in the game.

By the end of the week, McIlroy was ready to move on.

He said he intended to tell Fitzgerald after the final round except that his caddie had to catch a boat across the Irish Sea to Dublin. The next day, McIlroy had a Nike outing in London. He finally called him on Tuesday.

“I thanked J.P. for everything,” he said. “J.P. knows how much I think of him.”